This year, the safety of people dining in the street, in close proximity to moving cars, will be assured by the installation of concrete barriers. At Monday's informal Common Council meeting, a resolution was introduced authorizing the Tourism Board to spend $10,000 to purchase the concrete barriers and another $10,000 to repair the wood planters used at the intersections last year.
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| Photo: JD Urban|Hudson Hall |
Before the resolutions were introduced, Rob Perry, superintendent of Public Works, provided a preview of what the concrete barriers will look like.
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A good chance for youth to do some creative painting on those ugly cement blocks.
ReplyDelete10,000.00 to repair knotty hemlock! Another waist of more money. The entire shared street is just a joke.
ReplyDeleteWill the City maintain ownership of these after the summer season and if so, how and when will they be utilized?
ReplyDeleteI also called a few other municipalities to find out how they were handling outdoor dining. No one else seems to be going for the 'Green Zone of Kabul' theme. How was it determined that utilizing taxpayer funds and DPW hours were the hospital guest and best use of limited resources? Was there a safety incident last year?
Finally, these monstrosities are not easy to install or remove. Some member or other of the Tourism Board said businesses would be given one warning about violations and then their permit to operate would be revoked. Have these rules been made clear? What is the appeal process for a business? Who will make these determinations and do they have legal authority to do so?
*highest and best use*
DeleteHospital guests should obviously be putting their focus into making it to checkout.
There’s a joke in here somewhere: a caravan of trucks bringing ugly cement to Warren Street . . ..
ReplyDelete$10,000 does seem like a lot to repair a few wooden planters with rough cut lumber, but anything involving government seems entrenched in waste. This week I observed 4 feet of ceramic sewer pipe replaced with plastic in 2 hours at a cost of $2500. Kinda makes you want to move out to a shack in the woods with a rock lined septic hole.
ReplyDeleteI think concrete barriers are over the top and will look awful. Crazy expensive to move and remove. How many places are going to want them. Not Arenskjold Antiques.
ReplyDeleteI think no one actually wants them, and as I noted above, no other municipality seems to be making this requirement. I do understand that DPW has safety concerns, but this seems to be a sloppy, poorly thought-out solution to an ill-defined problem on the part of a late-acting, unprepared Tourism Board.
DeleteThere seems to be some momentum behind the idea of making open streets an annual opportunity to get people outside and rethinking our relationship to cars and the street, but measures like this just make the rollout and the application unpalatable to residents and visitors alike.
Was there a single accident last year? I drove on the Street Saturdays and there was no problem. No problem parking either, so I really don't know what all the fuss is about. And walking a few blocks is fine.
DeleteI’m all for Shared Streets, but this sounds crazy. Is any other city doing these type of barriers. Seems excessive. And $10,000 to just repair wooden planters? I could do some amazing things with my garden for that much money, and still have enough for a nice vacation in Hawaii. And to think they want to hire someone to run it for 6 months for just $5,000 more than they are spending to fix some wooden boxes.
ReplyDeleteCOMPLETE OVERKILL -- so unintelligent and ugly. 120 concrete barriers at 2500 lbs each.
ReplyDeletefor little "olde hudson".
I would like to congratulate all involved with the share streets project and your lack of common sense. And to all the shops on Warren that place your tables and chairs up to the curb....how the hell do you expect people to exist their car?
ReplyDeleteI'm all for shared streets but this looks like a big waste of money and a terrible idea. Big ugly blocks of cement lining Beautiful Warren Street? $10000 to repair wooden barriers that are 1 year old? Wasting money and DPW resources to move cement blocks? Who comes up with these ideas? Either close the street completely on weekends or leave it as it was last year. These aren't improvements, this is change for the sake of change.
ReplyDeleteIn Miami, they know how to do this.
https://lincolnroadmall.com/
Exactly, leave it as it was last year.
DeleteEveryone in Hudson just has to overthink and overthink, to make sure they overspend.
Keep it simple. Keep it reasonable. Last year worked.
Exactly. And I think Future Hudson who helped create and develop it last year is no longer involved. So whoever is is doing a terrible job.
DeleteThis would certainly be the time for businesses on Warren Street to speak up to the mayor and members of the Tourism Board to demand a more thoughtful solution that doesn't deter visitors or make our downtown look like it was inspired by Call of Duty.
DeleteMy participation in the Shared Streets program ended after the last survey - handing over responsibility to the Tourism Board.
ReplyDeleteTamar Adler and Kate Treacy have been tireless supporters and advocates for the Shared Streets Program - and the businesses it seeks to support.
I cannot say enough kind and admiring things about the time and heart that they have given to the City, generally, and this program in particular.
But, despite demonstrating broad support from residents and businesses in survey after survey, the vocal minority overwhelmed city leadership.
The decision to choose investing in massive physical infrastructure over traffic calming measures was made by the City - the Mayor’s office and Tom DePietro, as I understand it.
There was not a single accident last year as a result of the Shared Streets program.
Sorry, Peter, but tireless supporters and advocates should publicly argue against clearly bad policy measures to policy makers. They don't waste taxpayer money on self-serving vanity projects while working to paint themselves as saviors to the people. This is gag-worthy stuff.
Delete“City leadership” — it just keeps getting funnier and sadder at the same time.
DeleteHudson ... the continuing sitcom
ReplyDelete